Clifford Olson (1940-2011) began a murder spree killing 3 girls and 8 boys, ages 9 to 18, in British Columbia over an eight month period. The victims were tortured and sexually assaulted. Olson, who had an extensive criminal history, was arrested on August 12, 1981. He later confessed to the murders and, in a controversial deal, gave police information on the location of the victims' bodies in return for a C$100,000 ($95,000) payment to his family.
Links: Canada, Sex, Murder, Kids

1980 Nov 28

In northern California Diane Marie O’Connell (22) of San Jose and Shauna May (23) of San Francisco, were shot to death on Mount Wittenburg at Point Reyes. David Joseph Carpenter was arrested in May 1981. In 1984 he was convicted of 2 murders in Santa Cruz and sentenced to death. In 1988 he was convicted of 4 killings in Marin County and again sentenced to death.
Links: USA, Murder, SF Bay Area

1980 Dec 2

Three American nuns and a lay worker were abducted, raped and shot in San Salvador. Peasants discovered their bodies the next day and buried them. Nuns Dorothy Kazel, Ita Ford, Maura Clark, and lay worker Jean Donovan were raped and shot by guardsmen. The murders occurred as the US began a 10-year $7 billion aid effort to prevent left-wing guerrillas from coming to power. Five national guardsmen were later convicted in the killings, and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Links: El Salvador, Murder, Rape

In El Salvador the bodies of four American nuns slain two days earlier were unearthed. Colonel Edgardo Casanova was the military commander of the area at the time. Five national guardsmen were later convicted of murder and sentenced in May 1984 to 30 years in prison. In 1998 the guardsmen admitted that they were acting on orders from above. In 1993 a UN Truth Commission report concluded that Colonel Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, director of the National Guard and brother of Edgardo, and Gen’l. Jose Guillermo Garcia, the minister of defense, had organized an official cover-up. Both men were granted residence in the US. 3 of the 5 convicted guardsmen were released in 1998 due to prison overcrowding. In 1999 families of the victims filed suit against Casanova and Garcia who were living in Florida. In 2000 a federal jury cleared the 2 retired generals. In 2002 a Florida jury found Casanova and Garcia responsible for torture and ordered payment of $54.6 million to 3 victims living in Florida.
Links: El Salvador, USA, UN, Murder, Florida

1980 Dec 8

John Lennon, musician and one of the Beatles, was shot and killed by Mark David Chapman outside his New York City apartment building. Chapman was a schizophrenic with the delusion that he himself was John. In 1984 Prof. Jonathan M. Wiener wrote a book on Lennon and later got the FBI to surrender its secret files on Lennon.
Links: USA, NYC, Murder, Pop&Rock, Beatles

1980 Dec 20

John Riggins (18), a freshman at UC Davis and Sabrina Gonsalves (18) went missing. Their bodies were found 2 days later with their throats slit. The case went cold but was picked up by reporter Joel Davis in 2000. His efforts led to a cold DNA hit in 2002 that implicated Richard Hirschfield, a suspected child molester. In 2005 Joel Davis authored “Justice Waits.”
Links: USA, California, Murder, DNA

19801990

Herbert Baumeister (1947-1996), an Indianapolis businessman, killed 16 men, most of them gay, and dumped them in the woods behind his home and along rural roads in Indiana and Ohio. Baumeister committed suicide in Canada at age 49.
Links: USA, Gays, Murder, Indiana

1980

Blufford Hayes Jr. killed Vinod Patel, a motel manager in Stockton, Ca., during a robbery that netted $23 and some cigarettes. Hayes was convicted and sentenced to death. The sentence was upheld by a federal appeals court in 2002.
Links: USA, California, Murder, Robbery

"Yorkshire Ripper" Peter Sutcliffe (b.1946), murderer of 13 women, was arrested on a traffic violation. On Jan 4 he declared he was the ripper and charges were filed on Jan 6. He was convicted on May 22 on 13 counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison. In 2003 Michael Bilton authored “Wicked Beyond Belief: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper.”
Links: Britain, Murder

1981 Jan 8

Terri Winchell (17) was beaten, raped and stabbed to death in San Joaquin County, Ca. Michael Morales (31) was convicted in the murder and was slated for execution in 2006. Morales said he was enlisted by his cousin, Ricky Ortega, who had learned that Winchell was having an affair with Ortega’s male lover. Morales' original execution date of February 21, 2006, was postponed as a result of two court-appointed anesthesiologists withdrawing from the procedure.
Links: USA, California, Murder, Rape

1981 Jan 12

In Iowa Richard Huntbach (85) and wife Goldie (77) were found shot to death in their home in Waterloo. On May 10, 2012, Jack Wendell Pursel (66) turned himself in to police and confessed to the killing saying he had become a Christian. Months after the Waterloo killings, Pursel began serving a 21-year sentence for two sex offenses; however, he was paroled in 1992. He was completely discharged from his sentence in September of 1995. On June 7, 2012 Pursel pleaded guilty to the Waterloo murders and was sentenced to life in prison.
Links: USA, Murder, Iowa

1981 Jan

In northern California Kevin Thorp (21) and Laura Craig (20) were kidnapped by three men in Lassen County. Over the next few days they were both shot and killed. Norman Thomas later testified against Joseph Shelton and Benjamin Wai Silva.
Links: USA, California, Mayhem, Murder

1981 Feb 24

A jury in White Plains, New York, found Jean Harris guilty of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of "Scarsdale Diet" author Dr. Herman Tarnower.
Links: New York, Murder

In Lubeck, Germany, Klaus Grabowski, a child molester, was shot and killed by the mother of a girl he had molested and strangled. Grabowski had earlier avoided a life sentence by agreeing to castration.
Links: Germany, Murder, Kids

1981 Mar 15

Steacy McConnell (19) died following a robbery in Victor, just east of Lodi, Ca. Fernando Belmontes (19) had hit her 15-20 times with an iron dumbbell. In 2006 the US Supreme Court reinstated his death sentence. An appeals court then ruled that Belmontes’ lawyer had represented him incompetently. In 2009 the US supreme Court upheld the death sentence.
Links: USA, California, Murder

1981 Mar 20

Former girls’ school headmistress Jean Harris (1923-2012) was sentenced in White Plains, New York, to 15 years to life in prison for slaying "Scarsdale Diet" author Dr. Herman Tarnower. Harris was released in 1993 following a grant of clemency by Gov. Mario M. Cuomo.
Links: USA, New York, Murder

1981 Mar 20

Michael Donald (b.1961), a black teenager in Mobile, Alabama, was abducted, tortured and killed in what prosecutors charged was a Ku Klux Klan plot. Henry Hays (d.1997) murdered Michael Donald in a random abduction. Donald was beaten, cut, strangled and his body was strung up a tree. Hays was convicted and sentenced to death. He was executed Jun 6, 1997. In 1987 A wrongful death suit filed by Donald’s mother gave a $7 million verdict against the United Klans of America, led by Robert Shelton (d.2003 at 73).
Links: USA, Black History, Murder, Alabama, KKK

1981 Mar 29

In northern California Ellen Hansen (20), a UC Davis student, was shot to death after resisting a rape attempt at Henry Cowell Redwood State Park, near Santa Cruz. Her boyfriend was wounded but survived and later identified David Joseph Carpenter as the assailant. Carpenter was arrested in May 1981. In 1984 he was convicted of 2 murders in Santa Cruz and sentenced to death. In 1988 he was convicted of 4 killings in Marin County and again sentenced to death.
Links: USA, California, Murder, SF Bay Area, Rape

TimelinesA text-based site.

1981 Apr 23

Stacy Benjamin (19) and Patty Geddling (23) were murdered in Redwood City, Ca., under drug-related circumstances. In 2003 A federal appeals court upheld the conviction of Donald Beardslee of San Mateo. Beardslee had killed a woman in Missouri in Dec, 1969. Psychiatric evidence later showed that Beardslee suffered from brain damage due to an accident in 1964. Beardslee was executed by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison on Jan. 19, 2005.
Links: USA, Murder, SF Bay Area

1981 Apr 29

Truck driver Peter Sutcliffe (b.1946) admitted in a London court to being the "Yorkshire Ripper," the killer of 13 women in northern England during a five-year period. He was convicted on May 22 and sentenced to serve a minimum of 30 years.
Links: Britain, Murder

1981 Apr 30

William Eugene Cox and Annika Oestberg Deasy (27) robbed and killed Joseph Torre (58), a restaurant owner, in Stockton, Ca. A few days later they killed Sgt. Richard Helbush and stole his patrol car. They were both caught and sentenced to long jail terms. Cox later hanged himself in jail. In 1999 Sweden called for the transfer of Deasy to Sweden under the 1983 Strasbourg Treaty, which provided for prisoner transfers. In 2009 a Swedish court ruled that Annika Ostberg (55) would be released in 2011.
Links: USA, California, Sweden, Murder

1981 May 1

Heather Scaggs (20) was reported missing. Her naked body was found on May 24 in Big Basin State Park near Santa Cruz. She had been raped and shot to death. David Joseph Carpenter, a co-worker, was arrested on May 14 1981. In 1984 he was convicted of 2 murders in Santa Cruz and sentenced to death. On May 10, 1988, a San Diego jury convicted Carpenter of first degree murder in the slayings of Richard Stowers, Cynthia Moreland, Shauna May, Diana O'Connell, and Anne Alderson. Carpenter was also pronounced guilty of raping two of the women and attempting to rape a third.
Links: USA, California, Murder, SF Bay Area, Rape

1981 May 2

In California Joseph Azevedo (50) was found shot dead at his mobile home in Lancaster, LA County. On Nov 6, 2010, suspect David Winter (55), a long-haul truck driver, was arrested in Ohio.
Links: USA, California, Murder

Roger Wheeler, chairman of Telex Corp. and owner of World Jai Alai, was shot execution style at a Tulsa country club. In 2001 2 reputed Boston mobsters, James Bulger and Stephen Flemmi, were charged. Jai Alai executive John B. Callahan was murdered in Aug 1982 in Miami. In 2001 hitman John Vincent Martorano (60) pleaded guilty to Wheeler’s murder and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In 2003 former FBI agent H. Paul Rico (78) was arrested and charged with murder for helping to setup the hit.
Links: USA, Murder, FBI, Oklahoma

1981 Jun 23

The body of Catherine Schilling (21), a Georgetown law student, was found raped and murdered in Rock Creek Park. She was shot in the head five times after taking a shortcut home through the park after working late at her job as a paralegal at a DC law firm. In September 1982, a D.C. jury convicted Donald Eugene Gates of killing and raping Schilling. In 2009 Gates (58) was released from prison based on DNA evidence.
Links: USA, Murder, DNA, DC, Rape

1981 Jun

Jack Henry Abbott (b.1944), convicted killer, was paroled from prison. His book "In the Belly of the Beast" was a collection of letters written to Norman Mailer. 6 weeks after Abbott’s release he stabbed Richard Adan (22), an actor-writer to death in NYC. Abbott committed suicide in prison in 2002.
Links: USA, NYC, Writer, Murder

The "Wonderland Murders" took place at 4763 Wonderland in the Hollywood Hills. Ronald Launius, William Deverell, Barbara Richardson and Joy Miller were murdered. The killings were said to have occurred in retaliation for a drug robbery 2 nights earlier. Federal prosecutors unveiled in indictment in 2000 against Eddie Nash, a former nightclub owner, Gregory DeWitt Diles, his bodyguard, and porn star John Curtis Holmes. Holmes (d.1988) was later released. Holmes died in 1988 of an AIDS-related illness. In 2003 the film "Wonderland" starred Val Kilmer as Holmes.
Links: USA, California, Murder, Film Star

In southern California Jeffrey Vargo (6) was last seen alive bicycling to a fireworks stand in Pomona. On March 27, 2015, Kenneth Rasmuson (53) of Idaho was arrested after DNA evidence linked him to the murder.
Links: USA, California, Murder, DNA, Kids

1981 Jul 27

Adam Walsh (6) disappeared from a Hollywood mall. Fishermen discovered his severed head 2 weeks later in a canal 120 miles away. In 2008 police named Ottis Toole, who had died in prison in 1996, as the murderer. The Adam Walsh Act of 2006 obliged states to make their sex offender registries public.
Links: USA, California, Murder, Kids

1981 Jul 28

In Guatemala Rev. Stanley Rother of Oklahoma was shot twice in the head by three masked men at the parish rectory in Santiago Atitlan. In 2016 the Vatican declared him a martyr.
Links: Guatemala, Murder

1981 Aug 17

In Florida James Dvorak was found bludgeoned to death at Indian Harbor Beach in what was described as a robbery gone wrong. In 1981 William Dillon was convicted and sentenced to prison. In 2008 Dillon (49) faced a retrial after DNA evidence called into question his conviction.
Links: Murder, Florida, DNA

Mark David Chapman (b.1955) was sentenced in New York to 20 years to life in prison for the murder of rock star John Lennon.
Links: USA, NYC, Murder, Pop&Rock

1981 Aug 27

Rene Soto clubbed to death Anselmo Covarrubias in LA County. Maria Suarez (21), a battered "sex slave" to Covarrubias and witness to the murder, was convicted of first-degree murder and sent to prison. In 2002 Gov. Davis rejected a recommended parole for Suarez. In 2003 Gov. Davis issued a parole. Suarez was released in 2004.
Links: USA, California, Murder

1981 Oct 20

In New York Brinks security guard Peter Paige was killed in a $1.6 million holdup of an armored truck at a suburban mall in Rockland County. In 1988 Mutula Shakur was sentenced to 60 years in prison for his role in the killing and masterminding a series of deadly armed robberies as part of the “Family” political group.
Links: USA, New York, Murder, Robbery

1981 Nov 3

In Milpitas, Ca., Anthony Jacques Broussard, a high school student (16), strangled and killed Marcy Conrad, his girl friend (14), dumped her body on a river bank and gave tours to his friends, who never reported the crime. The 1986 film "River's Edge" was later made based on the murder. On December 3, 1982 Broussard was sentenced in a San Jose, California court to 25 years to life for the strangulation death of Conrad. He was to be eligible for parole after 16 years and 8 months (July 1999).
Links: USA, Murder, SF Bay Area, Teens Amuck

1981 Nov 10

In South Africa Durban human rights attorney Griffiths Mxenge was found slain. Mxenge was stabbed 46 times by a police death squad that included Dirk Coetzee. In July 1985 his wife Victoria Mxenge was attacked by four men in the driveway of her home in Umlazi, Durban. She was stabbed and shot shortly after disembarking from a family friend’s vehicle.
Links: South Africa, Murder

TimelinesA text-based site.

1981 Nov 18

In Los Angeles Kazuyoshi Miura and his wife (28), visitors from Japan, were shot in a downtown parking lot. His wife went into a coma and later died in Japan. In 1985 Miura was arrested on suspicion of assaulting his wife for insurance money and in 1994 he was convicted of murder. In 1998 a Japanese high court overturned the sentence. In 2008 Miura was arrested in Saipan. He was extradited to the US and committed suicide by hanging on Oct 10, 4 days prior to arraignment on murder conspiracy charges. He was 61.
Links: USA, Japan, California, Murder

1981 Nov

In California Henry Vila (62) and his wife Edith (59) were stabbed to death in their Albany hill home during a robbery. DNA evidence in 2002 identified Charles Jackson, a recently deceased Folsom inmate, as her killer.
Links: USA, California, Murder, SF Bay Area, Robbery

In Garden Grove, Ca., market owner Packawan Wattanaporn was found strangled to death and Quach Nguyen was stabbed to death. Jaturun Siripongs was later convicted for the crime and faced the death penalty in 1998. He admitted to the robbery but not the killings.
Links: USA, California, Murder, Robbery

1981 Dec

In California Betty Jo Grunzweig (37) was raped and stabbed to death in her home in Oakland’s Trestle Glen District. DNA evidence in 2002 identified Charles Jackson, a recently deceased Folsom inmate, as her killer.
Links: USA, Murder, DNA, SF Bay Area, Rape

In California Gail Leslie Slocum (34) was stabbed to death in her home in Oakland’s Rockridge District. DNA evidence in 2002 identified Charles Jackson, a recently deceased Folsom inmate, as her killer.
Links: USA, Murder, DNA, SF Bay Area

1981

Claude Dallas (30) killed Conley Elms and Bill Pogue, officers for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, who were investigating reports of bobcat poaching in remote southeast Idaho. Dallas served 22 years for the execution-style slayings and was released in 2005.
Links: USA, Murder, Idaho

1981

Cesare Battisti escaped from an Italian prison while awaiting trial on four counts of murder committed when he was a member of the Armed Proletarians for Communism. In 2007 he was arrested in Rio de Janeiro. In 2008 Brazil's top prosecutor recommended his extradition.
Links: Italy, Brazil, Murder

1982 Jan 6

Truck driver William G. Bonin was convicted in Los Angeles of being the "freeway killer" who had murdered 14 young men and boys.
Links: USA, California, Murder

1982 Jan 17

In the SF Bay Area Elisabeth Martinsson (21), a Swedish exchange student at the College of Marin, disappeared. Ten days later a convicted rapist was found with the car in Oklahoma. Henry Coleman (31) of Los Angeles, was wanted on a robbery warrant out of California. He was convicted of auto theft and sentenced to five years in prison, but was never charged with Martinsson's death. In 2014 dental records were used to identify her remains found in a canyon in Fremont, Ca.
Links: USA, Sex, Murder, SF Bay Area, Rape

Convict-turned-author Jack Henry Abbott was found guilty in New York City of first-degree manslaughter in the stabbing death of waiter Richard Adan in 1981. Abbott was later sentenced to 15 years to life in prison; he committed suicide in 2002.
Links: USA, Writer, Murder

1982 Jan 22

Eduardo Frei Montalva (b.1911), former Chilean President (1964-1970), died from septic shock as he recovered from stomach surgery at a Santiago clinic. In 2007 his family filed a court complaint claiming that Frei had been assassinated by poisoning after a Belgian university investigation found mustard gas in the body of the former Christian Democratic leader. In 2009 a Chilean judge ruled that Montalva was assassinated and that his killing was covered up by people linked to the dictatorship of Gen. Pinochet. Six people were charged in the case.
Links: Chile, Murder

1982 Jan 25

In Stockton, Ca., Renee Rontal (13) and Nancy Rubia (13) were out looking for fun on a popular cruising strip when they were picked up by a 22-year-old Reyes and 21-year-old Antonio Espinoza. The next day a farm worker found Renee in a ditch outside town with her throat cut. Nancy was found nearby face down in shallow water, and an autopsy concluded that she died from drowning in the muddy water. Both girls had been beaten and raped. Espinoza was arrested a year and a half after the killing and was convicted of murder. On May 27, 2011, FBI agents and Mexican federal police arrested Alfredo Reyes (51) outside a pool hall in Tijuana, where he had been living under an alias.
Links: USA, California, Murder, Rape

1982 Jan

In Chicago Lloyd Wickliffe, a security guard, was killed in a McDonald's restaurant. Later Andrew Wilson (d.2008) told his lawyers that he, and not Alton Logan, had killed the guard. On March 17 Lawyers Kunz, Coventry and Miller signed a notarized affidavit: "I have obtained information through privileged sources that a man named Alton Logan ... who was charged with the fatal shooting of Lloyd Wickliffe ... is in fact not responsible for that shooting...” In 2008 Logan was still in jail waiting for a new trial.
Links: USA, Chicago, Murder

1982 Jan

In South Carolina Dorothy Ely Edwards (75) was raped and stabbed 52 times. Edward Lee Elmore was convicted twice for the murder but DNA evidence in 2000 suggested that he was innocent. In 2005 his sentence was commuted to life in prison. In 2012 Raymond Bonner authored “Anatomy of Justice: A Murder Case Gone Wrong.”
Links: USA, Murder, South Carolina

In Guatemala 73 men and women from Rio Negro were ordered by the local military commander to report to Xococ, a village upstream from the reservoir zone which had a history of land conflicts and hostility with Rio Negro. Only one woman out of the 73 villagers returned to Rio Negro, the rest were raped, tortured and then murdered by Xococ's Civil Defense Patrol, or PAC, one of the notorious paramilitary units used by the state as death squads. The Guatemalan army invaded Santa Maria Tzeja and massacred 13 people. Villagers fled their homes following the massacre. In 2004 Beatriz Manz authored "Paradise in Ashes: A Guatemalan Journey of courage, Terror and Hope."
Links: Guatemala, Murder, Rape

1982 Feb 23

Tucapel Jimenez, a Chilean labor leader, was found with his throat cut and face shot in his car. Gen. Humberto Gordon Rubio (d.2000), secret police chief, was implicated in the killing.
Links: Chile, Murder

1982 Feb 27

Wayne B. Williams was found guilty of murdering two of the 28 young blacks whose bodies were found in the Atlanta area over a 22-month period.
Links: GeorgiaUS, USA, Murder

1982 Mar 6

In Ohio Reginald Brooks (66) fatally shot his 3 sons while they slept shortly after his wife filed for divorce. Brooks was executed in Lucasville by lethal injection on Nov 15, 2011. He was oldest person put to death since Ohio resumed executions in 1999.
Links: USA, Ohio, Murder

1982 Apr 11

Ronald Allen (32), a member of Your Black Muslim Bakery in Oakland, Ca., was found shot to death on Easter morning near the Berkeley dump. A day earlier the father of 5 had gone out for a meal with his bakery brethren.
Links: USA, Murder, SF Bay Area